I interviewed private landowners across the UK – if we want to stop them trading what is morally ours, we need radical changeFour years ago I asked a simple question about our most basic resource that feeds, waters and houses the nation, while providing energy, timber, recreation for millions and much else besides. Why don’t we, governments and individuals, value our land – for it surely is ours, morally if not legally – beyond the obscene monetary gain for the rich and powerful to exploit it as a valuable commodity to be bought, sold and used as a handy place to dump spare cash and avoid inheritance or capital gains tax?Governments have become so obsessed with the whims of the “free market” that in England (but not, significantly, in Scotland) we seem locked in a cycle of despair, a “why bother?” mentality that precludes any intervention in the interests of all the people, assuming we even consider the pressures on this valuable resource and the estimated 2m hectares of public land sold off since the 1970s – valuable holdings in our postwar new towns, NHS sites, rich farmland owned by cash-strapped county councils and the rest. Continue reading…
Source : theguardian.com
Read more…So 1% of the people own half of England. Inheritance tax reform could fix that | Peter Hetherington
